I'm your biggest fan!

I have been a fan of the Beatles for a long time. Their influence on music is unquestioned. But I have never envied their lives. Imagine if the only thing anyone ever wanted to talk with you about was a 7-year period that occurred 40+ years ago. Imagine what it would be like to have people come up to you constantly and speak with you like you know each other intimately, each one with a different version of who you are in their heads.

People have done so many things with Jesus in the two millennia since he was crucified. In that time, Jesus has been portrayed as a Rabbi, a King, a Monk, the Bridegroom, the Universal Man, the Teacher, a Poet, a Liberator, a Revolutionary, and an anti-religious radical. People take their own version of Jesus and paint him large. The great irony is that the portrait of Jesus they paint tends to look a lot like themselves (cf. Albert Schwietzer). Books are published every day that dissect the written records of Jesus and postulate who he really was, but the fact is, we know very little about him. The New Testament records only three years of Jesus’ life with any detail, and half of that time was in obscurity in Galilee.

Mark 14:53-15:1 “They took Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief priests, elders and teachers of the law came together. 54 Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. There he sat with the guards and warmed himself at the fire. 55 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any. 56 Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree. 57 Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against him: 58 "We heard him say, 'I will destroy this man-made temple and in three days will build another, not made by man.'" 59 Yet even then their testimony did not agree. 60 Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, "Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?" 61 But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?" 62 "I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."  63 The high priest tore his clothes. "Why do we need any more witnesses?" he asked. 64 "You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?" They all condemned him as worthy of death. 65 Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, "Prophesy!" And the guards took him and beat him. 66 While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came by. 67 When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him. "You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus," she said. 68 But he denied it. "I don't know or understand what you're talking about," he said, and went out into the entryway.   69 When the servant girl saw him there, she said again to those standing around, "This fellow is one of them." 70 Again he denied it. After a little while, those standing near said to Peter, "Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean." 71 He began to call down curses on himself, and he swore to them, "I don't know this man you're talking about." 72 Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times." And he broke down and wept.”

In his denials, Peter was much closer to the truth than anyone has ever come. Within his fear of being discovered, Peter spoke what was in his heart – "I don't know this man you're talking about."  And he really didn’t. His version of Jesus, the version that up until that point had been Peter’s handle on the situation, had been revealed as mistaken. And because his world was falling apart, Peter reverts back to his former self – impetuous, angry, and afraid. Jesus was the only one in the story that got it right: “You will deny me three times.”

The apostle Paul came closer than anyone in identifying Jesus when he described Jesus as, “the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians  2:2-3). Jesus is indeed a mystery, his revelations always shocking and disturbing our pat explanations and assumptions, and he will disrupt and overturn our definitions of him as easily as the marketplace in the Temple.